No music was playing in the car. The abrupt sound of the car locking made Ning Yi tremble.
She felt a bit cold for some reason and at the same time, her head felt heavy and very dizzy. There was a very strange fragrance in the car that made her head much dizzier when she smelled it. She wanted to roll down the window for some air, but there was no movement even after she pressed several times.
Ning Yi placed her head on the cool glass. Feeling a little better, she opened her mouth and called, “Uncle Chen.” She was surprised to find that her voice was extremely hoarse.
She leaned against the window for a bit, licked her dry lips, and tried her best to call out again, “Uncle Chen, trouble you…to help me open the window a bit…”
The person in the driver’s seat was silent. If the car hadn’t been moving forward the whole time, Ning Yi would’ve almost thought that there was actually no one there. She rubbed and massaged her temples a couple times with her hand weakly. Out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly caught sight that it wasn’t the buildings on the way home that she was familiar with outside the window…
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The dizziness made Ning Yi’s ability to think extremely slow. She thought that she had spoken too quietly so Uncle Chen couldn’t hear her, so she used all her strength to sit up, clasping the seat in front to get closer to call him. “Uncle Chen, have you taken the wrong road? This isn’t…”
The latter half of Ning Yi’s words were simply a hoarse sound in her throat because she saw that although the man in the driver’s seat was wearing a black mask that covered half of his face, whether it was body shape or clothes, it could be seen that it was absolutely not Uncle Chen!
Lu Xu Nan propped his hands on the armrests of the office chair, heavily gasping for breath. His heart didn’t calm down for a long time due to the terror of his nightmare.
He lifted his hand and wiped the sweat on his face, feeling a little speechless at how he could actually fall asleep sitting in a chair.
Most of the lights in the office area were already off, only a small area above Lu Xu Nan’s head was still lit. He glanced at the time at the lower right corner of the computer and discovered that it was already almost nine thirty.
He stood up and looked in the direction of Ning Xiu’s office. The light was still on. Lu Xu Nan lifted his hand and knocked the place where his heart was. Even though he already forgot the content of the nightmare, he still felt very uncomfortable.
Just as he was hesitating whether to greet Ning Xiu and go home first, the office door suddenly opened from the inside, hitting the wall with a loud bang.
Immediately after, Ning Xiu rushed out with his phone, concealed anxiety on his face. On his way, he even ran into a pot of pothos on a desk, sending it crashing to the floor with a bang. But the mess on the floor didn’t obstruct his footsteps, he seemed not to see even Lu Xu Nan who was standing there, directly rushing out the door.
“…How long has it been? How come the police…I’ll contact…Have you received any suspicious phone calls…”
Lu Xu Nan overheard some scattered fragments and the uneasiness in his heart became increasingly severe. He immediately pushed his chair away, also running out the door. Unfortunately, he didn’t catch up and could only watch with his own eyes as the elevator doors closed in front of him.
He heard half of Ning Xiu’s words drift out from the small crack between the elevator doors.
“Most kidnappers ask for money, Yiyi will be okay, you have mom…”
Lu Xu Nan keenly caught the keywords. His heart was tremendously shocked and his hands uncontrollably shook.
He didn’t have time to think as he turned around and ran to the fire escape.
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He probably spent only one minute going down six floors’ worth of stairs, Lu Xu Nan pushed the door open and rushed out panting just in time to see Ning Xiu’s car fishtail and turn onto the road.
He irritably gave the wall a stomp, then took two breaths with his hands on his knees and belatedly thought of calling.
Ning Xiu’s number was continuously busy and unable to get through, Ning Xuemin’s was no different, and no one picked up with Le Baiqiu’s number or the Ning family’s private line.
Lu Xu Nan grit his teeth as he hung up, then called Lu Ting. This time, the call was finally connected.
Without waiting for the other side to speak, Lu Xu Nan anxiously asked, “Dad, did something happen to Ning Yi?”
Lu Ting was silent for a moment, he said gloomily, “Yiyi attended a classmate’s birthday party and was taken away by someone disguised as the driver. We haven’t been able to contact her, it’s suspected to be a deliberate kidnapping right now.”
Although Lu Xu Nan had vaguely guessed it before, he still felt an acute pain in his chest when he actually heard this news. In pain, he could barely hold on to his phone.
Voice trembling, he asked, “For how long? How long has she been out of contact?”
“According to what the clubhouse surveillance shows, it’s been over an hour, the police…” Lu Ting hadn’t finished speaking before he was cut off by the cry of alarm beside him.
After two minutes, Lu Xu Nan finally heard Lu Ting’s voice come from the phone again. “Your Aunt Le fainted, I don’t have time to talk to you right now. Are you still at Xiao Xiu’s company? I’ll get someone to pick you up. Don’t run around, come back home and wait for news…”
“No! Where are you guys right now? I’ll go over and join you!” Lu Xu Nan refused on the spot.
Lu Ting said solemnly, “This isn’t something that kids can handle! You be good, wait for me to send a car over…”
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Lu Xu Nan was so angry, he directly hung up.
Just thinking that Ning Yi’s whereabouts were currently unknown, he felt like a hole was forcibly dug out in his heart. And what made him feel even more painful was that just as Lu Ting said, he had absolutely no ability to handle this matter…
Ning Yi, Ning Yi, Ning Yi.
Just where are you?
Great fear enveloped Lu Xu Nan. He tightly clenched his phone, the veins on his arm showing.
Lu Xu Nan froze for an instant at his own thought. He didn’t understand why he used “again”, but the powerless mix of sorrow and panic gave him a strange sense of familiarity.
This person seems weird, should I go up and chase him away?
A sudden voice burst into Lu Xu Nan’s mind. He raised his head and saw a security guard standing nearby, vigilantly staring at him.
Lu Xu Nan slightly froze, unable to discern whether the person had actually spoken for a second, but a not very realistic thought soon popped into his brain.
The mindreading ability, he still had the mindreading ability.
If the scope of his mindreading ability could cover this entire area, the entire city, the entire province, and even the entire country, would there be a chance of finding some clues?
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As soon as this thought arose, Lu Xu Nan broke into a run toward the security guard, eager to grab the other person’s arm.
The security guard vigilantly retreated a step, at the same time taking out the rubber baton from his waist, and sternly shouted, “Stop! Who are you? What are you doing here?!”
Lu Xu Nan knew his behavior was a little strange, he reigned in his temper and urgently explained, “I’m an intern at Le You, I don’t hold any malice. I just want to know, when you saw me here just now, did you say anything?”
The security guard cautiously looked at him and didn’t answer his question, instead telling him to show his ID.
Lu Xu Nan felt his chest and came up with nothing only to remember that he had tossed the ID on his desk and hadn’t brought it.
The security guard saw this and very impolitely said, “If you need to go up, please contact a coworker to come down and take you. Otherwise, please leave immediately.”
Lu Xu Nan stared at him with a burning gaze. Until the security guard waved the baton at him unhappily and told him to leave again, he still couldn’t hear the other person’s thoughts.
His shoulders couldn’t help collapsing in disappointment, but two seconds later, he suddenly raised his head. Regardless of the security guard’s peculiar gaze, he turned around and rushed toward the sidewalk.
The noises of cars, footsteps, talking, and also the sound of music coming from somewhere unknown…
The surrounding numerous noises entered his ears in succession, but not one was the sound of a passerby’s thoughts.
Lu Xu Nan was utterly dejected. He hugged his head and bent at the waist in dismay, a hoarse low howl came from his throat.
Passerbys noticed his strangeness and all walked a little further around him.
No! He can’t give up! Even if there was only a one in ten thousandth chance, it was still better than sitting and waiting for death!
Lu Xu Nan fiercely rubbed his face, suppressing the wetness that came from his eyes.
He took a few deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down, then stood up straight and closed his eyes, standing unmoving like a statue in the middle of the sidewalk.
Gradually, as if those diverse sounds were being filtered out, the surroundings became quiet.
One passerby after another passed by Lu Xu Nan, soundlessly.
The entire world, in his perception, seemed like it had turned into a huge silent film.
Suddenly, an old female voice came into Lu Xu Nan’s mind.
How come this boy’s face is so white? Could he be unwell somewhere?
Lu Xu Nan suddenly opened his eyes and the slightly stooped back of an old granny who was looking at him a little worriedly. Seeing his gaze move over, her turbid eyes seemed to brighten.
Oh my, a very handsome child!
Soon, more and more voices came.
I fucking worked overtime til now again, if this keeps up, I’ll end in sudden death soon or later!
What did he ask me out for? He won’t really be confessing to me, right? God…I’m so nervous!
If it’s not buying this then it’s buying that? Is my money brought over by the winds? Fuck!
I don’t know if Xiao Xi likes pink roses? Should I have gotten red ones?
Good thing I caught it, I almost didn’t get the cake, Niuniu would probably cry for half an hour.
This person is so weird, is he doing behavioral art?
…
At the same time Xu Xing Ji who was hugging half a watermelon on the couch watching variety shows suddenly heard a flurry of urgent alarming beeps.
He frowned as he pressed on his watch, the aqua blue screen appeared in front of him.
[The detected abnormality is currently persistently attacking the firewall. Host, please immediately take mending measures to prevent this world from collapsing.]
Xu Xing Ji’s eyebrows gathered even tighter, he pulled out the virtual keyboard, his fingertips wrapped in blue quickly tapped out a long string of code.
Very quickly, the screen showed a simulated image.
Countless light red lines came from a red dot about one centimeter in diameter, while the color of the central red dot was not shallow but dark, which proved that the energy was increasing rapidly at an unimaginable speed.
With the increasing number of red lines, some burning black spots appeared on the surrounding blue shield and it faintly showed a trend of expanding.
That blue shield was the firewall, and once the shield was completely defeated, the program moving this world along will also collapse.
Xu Xing Ji couldn’t help exploding in a curse. He restlessly grabbed his hair, working while he cursed in a low voice, “I chose this place to watch the show and take a break! I’ve really landed myself in interstellar uninhabited land now! Lu Xu Nan, this punk, he really thinks he’s Professor X, doesn’t he? I’m really fucking… If I knew this would happen, I wouldn’t have been lazy before and not handled it…”
After just barely managing to secure the firewall, Xu Xing Ji immediately gave Lu Xu Nan a call. The other side picked up just before the automatic hang up, Xu Xing Ji warned him in exasperation, “Lu Xu Nan, no matter what you’re doing, stop immediately! This is my advice to you!”
It was silent for a moment over the phone, then Lu Xu Nan’s low and hoarse weak voice came, “You know I have a mindreading ability, don’t you?”
Xu Xing Ji paused, he hadn’t said anything yet, but Lu Xu Nan already spoke on his own, “I know you aren’t as simple as you appear. Please, please help me. As long as you help me save Ning Yi, no matter what you want from me, I can promise you…”